The "What's a good name for this?" thread

Okay for Spanish speakers, I want to ask about a city name playing on "Las Vegas", but referencing the star Altair instead.

not a spanish speaker, so

'los altares' might be good, since 'vegas' is just 'meadows' in spanish

As a Spanish speaker, it sounds good enough, even though it comes from an Arabic word.

I'll go with "Los Altares", thanks.

Title ideas for this?

I thought of Unto Extinction as a WIP title, but i've already used it for a different WIP. There's also the other half of the story, about the people who they think dead who'd left for other worlds looking for more macguffin substance or a substitute (two groups of revolutionaries and two groups of theocrats, fighting on two separate worlds propably, unless that's too many storylines).

Edited by Nukeli on Jan 12th 2023 at 7:45:53 PM

Looking for the name of an infamous event in the story's background.

Context: A Kingdom near present day Germany had a dragon problem, though not just any dragon. Ayul Doulcang, the Dragonlord, is out of all the Demon Dragons the most deadly. Being a former human, he represents the only human-created disaster - a nuclear event.

The King sets up an exchange - virgin women to be fed to Ayul Doulcang in exchange for "time". The Dragonlord sets up shop in a mountain, and eats every virgin woman provided by the King...up until a young dragonslayer named Jonathan shows up, frees a local girl, and reveals the King's Deal was nothing but perpetually stalling - he had no idea for how to fight Ayul Doulcang, nor had he put in any research into methods for doing so. He literally just sacrificed his peasants so the nobles and upperclass can live without issue.

Ayul Doulcang is...displeased. He immediately kills the crown prince presenting the sacrifice with a lightning bolt, and then flies off to the capital.

So basically, I want a name for the...thing that happens at the capital. It takes all of one hour for Ayul Doulcang to burn everything there to ash, all that's left of people being ashen outlines.

So what would people who saw it happening from a distance call it? As well as those who stumbled on to the scene?

The Botched Negotiation. Or A Burning Compromise.

For what it's worth, that's likely not the only human-created disaster: climate change and (depending on who you ask) the "sixth extinction"/"Holocene extinction" would seem to count.

It might be argued to be the only human-created disastrous event, however, as the others occur on a longer scale.

Anyway, getting the to actual question...

Hmm... Maybe "The Great Conflagration"? Or "The Banefire"? Or what about "The Dragon-Doom"?

"The Dragon-Doom" has a nice ring to it.

People aren't exactly sure what it was they saw, but it was bright, and in an hour, the kingdom was gone. And it hurt the eyes of those who looked.

Hmm... Then let me add two more suggestions: "The Dread-Fire", or "The Dread-Light".

(I do still like "The Dragon-Doom"—but if people don't know that a dragon did it, then that might not work.)

Ideas for my title?

The linked subsection specifically, not the two others i mention.

Back For More?

Trying to come up with names for a team of Mercs in a sci-fi setting. I have two of them, just need three more:

Characters with names:

• Luck 'O the Draw aka Lucky, the Cat-Folk (species name TBD) leader and sharpshooter of the team.
• Fennec Reynard, the Kitsune pilot, technomage, and seductive infiltrator. Comes with a free sarcastic British AI named Vixen.

Characters without:

• The Playful Hacker (species TBD)
• The Muscle/medic/engineer
• Mission Control and information gathering

Edited by BackSet1 on Jan 16th 2023 at 8:30:36 AM

Well, it looks like your characters draw their names from their species, so determining the species of the remaining three seems like the first step.

So: Are you also looking for suggestions as to their species? If not, it might be worth settling on those and then returning to this question.

[edit] Actually, I realise now that only the second character really draws from their species.

So, ignoring species, I might then suggest the following:

1) Glimmer

3) Stitch N. Time

(The latter could perhaps work for character (2), but "Stitch" might be a bit on-the-nose for a medic.)

That said, knowing the species of the three might still help in finding additional suggestions.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jan 17th 2023 at 11:15:05 AM

I could use species help, yes. I know at least one of them (the hacker) is a human.

Hmm...

For the medic, the status as "muscle" makes me think "bear"—but those aren't really associated with the sort of fine skill that one might think of for an engineer or medic...

Still, it might work! After all, bears can I believe be quite bright, and the contrast between "big aggressive creature" and "cares for the wounded and builds devices" might be interesting.

For the mission-control character, what about a bat? That might fit with the idea of the character "roosting" in the central tower, from whence they direct everything—and of swooping out on silent wings to gather intelligence...

(A spider would perhaps fit in terms of symbolism—but I don't know whether you're going for non-mammalian species.)

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jan 17th 2023 at 3:30:28 PM

I do like the spider idea.

As for the muscle/medic I think I might go with a snake person. Snake venom has historically been used to cure snake venom.

There's also the whole Rod of Asclepius association, too.

What could be a suitable name for a successor group of the UN formed after a devastating alien conflict, compounded by the UN's already existing flaws? It was formed right when Humanity was establishing a significant space presence but also needed an organization to ensure the stability of the planet and its relationship with others.

Well, Federation and Alliance seem logical but also quite overused.

How bout Council and Community?

Council for Planetary/Interplanetary Defense?

Something like that.

More ideas for my title?

Is Kashima Eri a plausible-sounding Japanese name?